We received word over the weekend that Wentworth Property, the proposed developer of the defunct Sedona Cultural Park on the west side of the city, had pulled its project, writing, “Over the weekend, we learned that unfortunately after a long year of work, the sellers decided to go a different way with the park and are having us withdraw our application. If anything changes, we will let you know immediately.”
The seller is currently Custer, S.D., businessman Mike Tennyson, who has owned the property for two decades.
The rationale for Tennyson pulling out of a proposed deal that could have netted him tens of millions of dollars and unhitched him from a vacant parcel after letting it sit vacant year after year and paying property taxes with no profit is somewhat inexplicable, but Arizona is a state with strong private property rights and if an owner chooses to change their mind and lose money, so be it.
“We say that we want housing for Sedona workers, but we don’t want, you know, ‘the poors’ actually living near us.”
Tennyson has had a playful ownership of the property, managing it under the shell companies “Flump & Lump LLC,” then “Woo Woo LLC” before settling on “Sathcupa LLC,” an initialism for “‘SA’ve ‘TH’e ‘CU’ltural ‘PA’rk”
The plan proposed in March would demolish the unused and derelict amphitheater and stage, which is in such disrepair now that it’s a safety hazard impossible to repair. It would need to be demolished even if a buyer wanted an amphitheater there again.
The first proposal would have built a 150- to 180-room resort of several stories, 30 to 40 casitas on the north side, a small commercial space, 43 townhouses and 120 workforce housing apartments.
The newly revised map we were given last week in preparation for a news story this week shifted some of the property around but basically kept the numbers intact, narrowing the hotel to 150 rooms, pinning the casitas to 35, swaping the housing parcels to build 108 apartments and 81 rental housing units, thus actually increasing the total number of housing for locals from 163 units to 189.
However, with the pullout, that public debate will not go forward for our community to see how serious we are and how serious Sedona City Council is about actually building affordable housing for Sedona’s workforce.
There may be a better project coming down the pike, or perhaps a more profitable one for Tennyson, but considering there have been at least three proposals for the parcel that have gone nowhere in the last 20 years, there’s likely not a new, super-ultra-fantabulous perfect plan ready to go in the slot.
Miramonte Homes proposed building around 84 workforce housing units on Jordan Road. Due to what it said was a disinformation campaign, Miramonte pulled that zone change request and instead will build what’s allowed under current zoning, a series of very large homes that will very likely be built as vacation rentals.
The Uptown neighbors who opposed the apartment complex have very little recourse and will need to deal with packs of tourists holding weddings rather than have local, working families.
The city is working to build apartments on Sunset Drive and adjacent to Sedona City Hall, but big projects by private developers, even good projects, face such knee-jerk opposition that it appears residents’ desire to build workforce housing is just lip-service.
We say that we want housing for Sedona workers, but we don’t want, you know, “the poors” actually living near us.
“Ick.”
Last night, while waiting for a table at a local restaurant that was packed on one side and completely empty on the other, the manager chatted that he simply did not have the waitstaff to serve all the potential customers. He said the problem was not the lack of workers but the lack of housing. He added that most of his staff lives in Cottonwood except for three workers, including himself, who rent one apartment in Sedona proper.
This recurring problem we hear from business owner after business owner: There are scores of workers willing to put in the time and effort to labor at our retail shops, restaurants and service industry stores, but they’re not going to drive an hour every day for the privilege of serving Sedona residents and tourists who don’t want them around off-hours.
Sedona needs housing but neighbors seem to always object and council members are either absent or offer no guidance or help to assuage issues and work on solutions.
If we, as residents, do not want workers living in our city that’s fine, but we need to stop pretending, then accept longer wait times, higher prices and a greater influx of tourists living in the homes that could be rented to residents.
Virtue signalling on social media does not put families into apartments. We have other problems, but if residents don’t actually want our housing shortage remedied, we’re only lying to ourselves.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
